Finance Digest Magazine

The future of the high street: Study reveals the first 10 cities in the UK to become cashless

Posted onApril 28, 2018

New data reveals the UK cities leading accelerated growth in contactless payments with the top 10 expected to go cashless first.

Top ten UK cities for digital transactions

London tops the chart of Cashless Capitals, with highest proportion of card transactions

Whereas Bristol revealed as contactless Capital

Only 10% of Brits likely to pay in cash

With the use of contactless almost tripling in 2016, and forecasts expecting it to make up more than one in four (27%) of all payments by 2026*, new data released by Paymentsense reveals the UK cities leading this growth with, those in the top 10 expected to go cashless first.

Analysing data of nationwide transactions from 2017, Paymentsense have created an interactive map exploring the UK’s cashless capitals, detailing the cities with the highest proportion of debit, credit, contactless and all transactions.

To further understand consumer spending habits and opinion, payment solutions specialists Paymentsense also conducted a study of 2,000 UK residents to reveal their payment preferences.

Top ten cities for card transactions

City

Sum of Transactions

LONDON

59,498,327

BIRMINGHAM

10,000,609

BRISTOL

8,297,118

BRIGHTON

6,775,089

MANCHESTER

5,449,368

SHEFFIELD

4,765,407

EDINBURGH

4,140,689

PORTSMOUTH

3,712,439

LEEDS

3,655,217

OXFORD

3,450,293

Top ten cities for contactless transactions

City

Sum of Transactions

Contactless Transaction Rate

BRISTOL

8,297,118

59.50%

LONDON

38,514,219

57.06%

BRIGHTON

6,775,089

55.85%

HULL

1,960,002

55.73%

BIRMINGHAM

10,000,609

52.97%

YORK

2,217,563

51.68%

LEEDS

3,655,217

50.14%

NOTTINGHAM

3,195,920

50.12%

OXFORD

3,450,293

48.99%

NORTHAMPTON

2,211,404

48.35%

46% UK worried about security of card transactions

80% of Brits said card transactions, including contactless, were their favourite form of payment. However, 46% said they were worried about the security of card transactions.

Could the rise of contactless payments be causing this fear? Contactless payments are becoming more popular with over 24% of Brits saying it’s their favourite form of payment.

Contactless transactions are more popular among younger spenders, as 41% Brits aged 18-24 said it was their favourite form of payment compared to just under 10% of people aged 55+. This suggests that even though many are worried about security, increasing numbers are using this form of payment.

Spenders need to check payment amounts and be aware of the location of their cards at all times, to ensure contactless payments maintain a high level of security.

50% Brits want card payment solutions in car parks

Almost half of the Brits surveyed said they would like car parks to accept card payments. This was closely followed by public transport (42%) and taxis (40%). Businesses could lose out on custom if they refuse to adapt to the contactless revolution, as 30% people in the UK would go to another shop if the vendor didn’t accept card payments.

This highlights the importance of card transactions if a business is going to be able to survive today’s market.

Cash certainly still has its uses though, as nearly 70% of Brits said they pay their children’s pocket money in cash.

Guy Moreve, Head of Marketing at Paymentsense, says:

“As a society, we’re close to becoming cashless, as our asset highlights which UK cities are the most advanced in terms of payment solutions. There’s areas of the UK that are adapting to this movement, but others that haven’t made the list need to improve and move with the times.

“The study further highlights the average person’s diminishing availability of cash, as many struggle when it comes to everyday, cash-only services such as car parks and taxis, and the importance of accepting card payments within these businesses.”

This website uses cookies We use cookies to enchance your visit and to personalize our content, social media features, ads and to analyze our traffic. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. You can at any time change or withdraw your consent by clicking on show details. Read our Privacy and Cookie Policy to know more.

Accept

Read more

Change Settings

Cookie Box Settings

Cookie Box Settings

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow.You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function.Learn more about the cookies we use.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

Block all

Essentials

Functionality

Analytics

Advertising

This website will:

Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting

Essential: Allow session cookies

Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages

Essential: Keep track of what you input in shopping cart

Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account

Essential: Remember language version you selected

This website wont:

Remember your login details

Functionality: Remember social media settings

Functionality: Remember selected region and country

Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken

Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number

Analytics: Keep track on the time spent on each page

Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.

Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting

Essential: Allow session cookies

Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages

Essential: Keep track of what you input in shopping cart

Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account

Essential: Remember language version you selected

Functionality: Remember social media settings

Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website wont:

Remember your login details

Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken

Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number

Analytics: Keep track on the time spent on each page

Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.

Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting

Essential: Allow session cookies

Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages